


Entrenched

by BadAtPennames



Series: Entrenched [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Eren is oblivious, M/M, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-20
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2018-01-02 04:44:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1052674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadAtPennames/pseuds/BadAtPennames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren meets Levi for morning coffee in a trench during WWI.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Entrenched

**Author's Note:**

> This is un-beta'd and I haven't written these characters before.

Eren ran along the support trench, ducking around the other soldiers, throwing apologies over his shoulder.  His gear kept trying to slip down his right arm and he had to keep tugging it back up, rather unsuccessfully.  He wasn’t any good at adjusting the straps himself; he always needed someone else to help him.

Eren had a meeting to get to.  Of a sort.  Regardless, the other party did not like to be kept waiting.  He had been at the opposite end of the front-line trench when he realized how late it had gotten and knew if he didn’t start running he was going to get an earful. 

He ran across another duckboard and just avoided stepping on a sleeping Connie as he came around the last corner. 

He grinned as there, at the dead end of this particular trench, Levi was waiting with two tin cups of joe and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

His pace finally slowed as he walked up, setting his rifle against the revetment as he took the offered cup.  He lifted it to his face, feeling the warm blast of steam against his mouth and nose.  It felt indescribably wonderful against the chill of the early morning.

“You’re late,” Levi commented.

Eren frowned, pulled out his pocket watch and raised his eyebrow at the other soldier.

“By a minute and a half.  Why?  Do you have a date you need to get to?”  Despite having been seen in a panicked dash by half the battalion, Eren tried to be nonchalant.

Levi sipped his coffee pointedly.

Eren suddenly remembered he had his own cup raised to his lips and finally took a sip.

His eyebrows shot up and a pleased smile spread across his face.

“Supply got us more sugar?”

“Is there sugar in your coffee?”  Levi countered.

“I sure hope that’s what it is,” Eren laughed, dipping his chin.  His helmet slipped down over his eyes.  With an annoyed grunt, he took it off and hung it over the end of his rifle.

“How is it every time I see you, your gear is in even more of a mess than the time before?”

“How is it that every time I see _you_ , your gear looks like it’s fresh out of the factory?  You’ve been in this same mud pit as long as any of us and you’re absolutely _pristine_.”  It was widely accepted that Levi was the only man in the battalion that could live in a pit in the earth and never get a speck of dirt on him.  He never even had any on his boots.  Eren knew this because he had developed a habit of surreptitiously checking. 

“It’s called washing,” Levi said, taking another sip of his coffee and following it with a drag on his cigarette.

“Unless you stand outside in the rain, I’m not sure where you’re getting clean water.  You’d have to be barefoot, too, in order to keep the mud off your boots.”

Levi tried to hide the small smirk with his cup of joe, but Eren caught it anyway.

They finished their coffee in comfortable silence, watching the sky over the lip of the trench brighten with the rising sun. Eren absently adjusted his gas mask carrier and pulled on his right strap before he heard Levi audibly sigh and step up to him.

“Here,” he said, setting his cup down and letting his cigarette hang out of his mouth before swatting Eren’s hands away.  He tugged on Eren’s gear until it sat evenly across his shoulders, loosening the left and tightening the right strap.  He then spun the younger soldier around and presumably tightened and loosened more straps until everything sat right.

Eren looked back over his shoulder at the man whose head was slightly down-turned, cigarette smoke rising up between them and into the atmosphere.

“Thanks.  You never realize how uncomfortable you are until it’s fixed.”

“Why is there mud caked on the back of your uniform?”

“I was tasked with expanding our trench empire.”

“Unless you dig trenches with your ass, I don’t think that answers my question.”

“Well, Kirschstein was helping me…”

Levi raised his head to look him straight on.

“We may have gotten into an argument and slung shovels of mud at each other… look, it’s dried now so I can just slap most of the dirt off.”

Levi’s expression was suddenly indecipherable.

Eren watched as he slowly raised his hand to his cigarette, took a long drag, and then pulled it out of his mouth, never once breaking eye contact.

“You could do that.”

His voice sounded odd.

Eren turned around and Levi backed up a step to a more normal distance.

“So what’s on the docket for today?  Sit in a hole and defend a trickle of water?”

“It’s what we’re good at,” Levi replied.

“Sometimes,” Eren began, gazing at the sandbags perched on the top edge of the trench, “I wonder if Erwin is a master strategist or if he covers his eyes, blindly points to a spot on a map and says, ‘We’re going to sit here for the next few months and see what happens.’”

Levi chuckled softly.

“As long as he keeps us alive, I don’t much care where he puts us.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Eren grinned at him.

It’s ironically peaceful in that corner of the trench maze, staring up at the sky as clouds drift past, the smell of tobacco in the air.  This is one of the moments when it isn’t so bad being at war, living in a pit you and fifty of your closest friends dug out of the ground yourselves.  Closest of course having more to do with proximity and circumstance, but you take what you can get when the luxuries have been ripped out of life. 

 “What’s the first thing you’re going to eat when you get home?” Eren asked, breaking the silence.  It was one of the more popular queries spoken in the battalion along with “What the hell was that explosion?” and “Do you think I should have this looked at?”

“Anything would be better than the garbage we get here.”  Levi took a final drag on his cigarette before flicking it into the corner of the trench.

“Yeah, but isn’t there anything you think about late at night?  When I’m huddled up alone in my funk hole with my itchy blanket, I think about that spicy flavor, that soft texture, how nice and warm it is…”

“I think you’re confusing food with sex.”

Eren’s laugh is like a crack of thunder.

“After the rations we get here?  Food might actually be higher on my priority list!”  It was sadly true, although lack of both seemed to confuse Eren’s descriptions of either.

“So?” Levi prompts when Eren’s chuckles have subsided, a faint smirk on his face and an undertone of amusement in his voice, “What food do you think about?”

“My mom makes this meatloaf that is so… stop laughing.”

Levi’s shoulders were shaking as he tried to stifle his chuckling.

“The way you talk sounds like you’re in need of some trench comfort.  If you disappear next time we’re in town, I’ll check the local brothel.”

Eren’s face suddenly colored up.  “Put a sock in it.”

“Go on about the meatloaf,” Levi said, unable to keep the smile off his face.

“It’s what I always think about whenever I’m eating meat-”

There was a muffled snort.

“-out of a can,” Eren continued, annoyed.  “I always have meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans.  The best is the gravy-”

This time the snort was not muffled and it was accompanied by a noise that sounded like Levi was choking.

“You’re very effusive today.”  He gave Levi a displeased look.  “If anyone needs some trench comfort, I don’t think it’s me.”

Eren gave Levi a moment to compose himself.

“How about you?  What are you going to eat?”

Levi thought for a moment before responding, “Spaghetti.”

 “Really?  You?  Isn’t that messy?”

“Some of us can eat our food without most of it ending up on the outside of our uniforms.”

Levi eyed a spot on Eren’s chest, prompting the younger soldier to look down.

“That was Jean’s fault.”

“I was unaware that Kirschstein was waging such a vendetta against your uniforms.”

“We were arguing last night eating supper, he elbowed me.”

“Have you tried not arguing with him?” 

Eren seemed to think this question was rhetorical.

Levi sighed, pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, unscrewed the cap of his canteen and poured a little water on the cloth.  He stepped up to Eren and began dabbing at the spot.

Eren’s face heated as Levi’s head was dipped at his chin his hair tickling at his collar bone.

“Tch.  I’m not a little kid.”

“I have yet to see proof of that.”

“Aside from enlisting in the army and shipping off to war?”

“Any idiot can do that.  Half the morons here were drafted.”

“I wasn’t.”

“If you chose to be here, that makes you an even bigger idiot.”

“Were you drafted?”

Levi exhaled heavily.

“No.”

“Then I guess we’re a couple of idiots.”

Levi glanced up, a hint of humor in his eyes.

“I won’t argue with that.”

There was a half beat before Eren asked, “Would that be spaghetti and _meatballs_?”

“You, however, are a bigger idiot than I am,” Levi said, looking down to blot at Eren’s shirt a little more.  The worst of it was off but there would remain a light stain.  He rested the handkerchief against Eren’s chest for a moment, knowing it was probably time to step away.

“Say Levi-” Eren began but was promptly cut off by a shout behind them.

“Yeager!  Boldt’s looking for you, says he needs you at the ammo dump!”

Eren jumped and quickly stepped back from Levi, turning towards the soldier that had intruded.

“I’ll be right there!”  He reached over, grabbed his helmet and shoved it on his head.  Levi rolled his eyes and reached up to adjust the straps so it sat straight.  The younger soldier gave him a sheepish look and picked up his rifle. 

“Duty calls.  See you after supper?”

“I’ll be here unless I get blown up,” Levi replied. 

“Or gassed,” Eren grinned.

“Or shot full of holes.”

Eren laughed and followed the other soldier back through the maze of trenches.  Levi stood there for a moment longer with his heart thumping in his ears and thought about how war held a few more hells for him than he ever would’ve thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Criticisms and critiques are welcome; you won't hurt my feelings. I haven't written in a long time, so I am very out of practice. In fact, I don't know why I suddenly had to write something set during WWI. I don't even like war stories. I also did a ridiculous amount of research for something so short, most of which didn't even make it into the fic.


End file.
